Question: Where can you get booze, good music and an education?
Newport This Week - January 6, 2006
By Marilyn Bellemore
With his long, blond hair billowing in the air, David Coverdale belts out "Here I Go Again" as Tawny Kitaen, the sex kitten and future husband-beater, gyrates and sprawls her body back and forth across two sports cars. It is 1987 and the image will become a memory etched in the minds of those who grew up during the music video era.
Flash forward 18 years. The place -- O'Brien's Pub at 501 Thames St. for Tuesday trivia night.
"David Coverdale was the lead singer for what band?" asks Sean Boudreau, 31, the event's able host and an assistant dock master at Goat Island Marina, as he downs a vodka Red Bull.
Beer-guzzling patrons, some barely toilet-trained or old enough to watch MTV in the '80s, consult, belch and then fill out their score sheets.
The answer, White Snake, brings cheers from the crowd. However, Dennis Hofer, 23, of team Joe Rivard Fan Club, with Margarita in hand, is not amused.
"Have some pride," bellows Hofer from his bar stool. "I don't like '80s hair metal. It was silly. It ruined music for a while."
This is a particularly tame evening. Even with team names like Moist Crotch Syndrome and Dick Cheney's Prostate.
Boudreau, who has hosted trivia night for just over a year, says that on occasion, participants who are generally laid back and more subdued, drink a few too many and get a little out of hand.
"They become more confident, and if they don't agree with an answer they'll argue about it," he says.
But Boudreau must be doing something right because he has a pretty big following which includes college students and recent grads, singles, married moms and dads, and thirty and forty-somethings who make the trip to the neighborhood bar each week to drink a few pitchers, hang out with buddies, test their knowledge and vie for prizes. May the best man win.
Kerrie Philbin, O'Brien's manager, came up with the idea for trivia night while she was living in Boston. The first time she played was at Kinvara Pub.
"Pub trivia tends to be popular in cities," she explains. "I used to go to bars and play. It's a part of people's regular routine. It's fun, something different and you can still talk to your friends and have a good time."
Through a friend, Philbin met Michael O'Neill, a popular trivia host in the Hub city. She arranged for a group from O'Brien's, including Boudreau, to watch O'Neill in action at T's Pub.
Afterward, he let them borrow equipment -- speakers, amplifier, mixer, microphone and two CD players to get started. Now, for a nominal, monthly fee, O'Neill supplies O'Brien's with materials like questions, score sheets and pens.
"We're a pub where people tend to come, sit and talk," observes Philbin. "They relax and have some drinks. You can do your own thing like play pool and still play the game. It doesn't cost anything and I think Sean is a great host. You have to be tolerant."
The rules are simple. Score sheets are handed out to keep track. When a question is asked, each team has until the end of a song to submit its answers. Don't cheat! That means, no outside sources like consulting non-team members and getting on your cell phones. And, no shouting.
"And, most important," says Boudreau. "Please take care of your bartender working tonight."
The coveted first prize is $30 cash, second is a $20 gift certificate to O'Brien's and third prize is a $10 gift certificate. Most winners use it to pay off their tabs.
Topics vary across the board, including movies, inventions, science, opera, sports, literature, geography and more.
Team Take On Me, led by Newporter Brooks Cheever, 30, a self-proclaimed Jesus look-alike, consists of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Shana Provost, John Brown, 22, Everett Correia, 23, Jeff Gray, 23, Rachel Wicks, 22, Alicia Blythe, 22, all from Portsmouth and Nicole Toppa, 22, of Newport.
"We like it because it's stimulating," insists Provost.
Jewel's "Save Your Soul" blares from the speakers and the drinks keep pouring
Question: What country lies between Panama and Nicaragua? Answer: Costa Rica.
The Rolling Stones "Paint It Black" plays even louder.
Question: What was the first all-girl group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Answer: The Supremes.
Team Take On Me takes the lead
Ray Blanchette, a military guy on team Angry Elves, asks, "How the hell do these guys process it? You got to be some kind of nerd to get it that quick. Yeah. You have no life."
The five-member Moist Crotch Syndrome plots and schemes from their side booth. Ben Swanson, a former sailor and pending geologist, says he shows up because of the prizes, which he uses to buy Newport Storm.
Jacques Bouchard an English teacher from Creston, Iowa, says he coined the group's name because, "Like so many things, it's rooted in reality."
"It's because he said he had it (moist crotch syndrome)," adds teammate Shelley McDonald from Narragansett. "He spilt water on his lap."
Question: In 1982, what was Barney Clarke's claim to fame? Answer: The first person to receive an artificial heart.
Back at team Take on Me's table, John Brown has finished off four beers and two rum and Cokes. Brooks Cheever is yelling "I love fat girls. I'm taking it easy."
Newporter Dave Livingston, 50, although a regular at O'Brien's shows up for the first time for trivia night with his nephew and sister-in-law's son.
"I got the answer for who was the lead singer for Generation X right," he beams as his voice speeds up. "I knew it was Billy Idol. I saw him this summer at Lupo's. I was living in Florida back in the '70s and into the punk rock scene."
At least 60 people now occupy the pub. Two pool games are going, the wood stove is burning and the noise level skyrocketing. And Bouchard continues to keep the crowd happy. This time it's a record breaker with 14 teams rather than the usual 9.
Jarrod Pimental, 21, on team Dick Cheney's Prostate, says, "I hate Dick Cheney. It's (his schlong) a giant in the foreign and domestic policy field."
Thankfully, the group is smarter than the vice-president. Pimental aces the question: What five emperors followed the reign of Julius Caesar? Answer: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero.
"That's my thesis," he hollers. "If I got that wrong, I don't deserve to graduate college."
At 11:45 p.m., the results are totaled. First place is Dick Cheney's Prostate with 92 points; second place, Moist Crotch Syndrome with 65 points and third place , Steamers with 64 points.
"It has its moments," adds Boudreau, who is also employee at O'Brien's during the summer. "I like interacting with people and if I knew the answers to all the questions I wouldn't be working in a bar."
Test your knowledge
So you think you're pretty smart? Try these questions on for size.
1. What is the national flower of the United States?
2. Who was the first American to win the Tour de France? He's a three-time winner: 1986, 1989 and 1990
3. What is the name for special plates of whalebone that strain plankton from water?
4. What singer and actor was born Marvin Lee Aday?
5. Who played Chris Penn's girlfriend in the movie "Footloose?"
6. What U.S. President invented the swivel chair?
Questions courtesy of Michael O'Neil of www.djmichael.com
Answers
1. rose
2. Greg Lemond
3. baleen
4. Meatloaf
5. Sarah Jessica Parker
6. Thomas Jefferson
By Marilyn Bellemore
mbellemore@newportthisweek.net
